Aperture Restriction Localisation in the LHC Arcs using an RF Mole and the LHC Beam Position Measurement System

Ensuring that the two 27km beam pipes of the LHC do not contain aperture restrictions is of utmost importance. Most of the ring is composed of continuous cryostats, so any intervention to remove aperture restrictions when the machine is at its operating temperature of 1.9K will require a substantial amount of time. On warming-up the first cooled sector, several of the sliding contacts which provide electrical continuity for the beam image current between successive sections of the vacuum chamber were found to have buckled into the beam pipe. This led to a search for a technique to verify the integrity of a complete LHC arc (~3km) before any subsequent cool-down. In this paper the successful results from using a polycarbonate ball fitted with a 40MHz RF transmitter are presented. Propulsion of the ball is achieved by sucking filtered air through the entire arc, while its progress is traced every 54m via the LHC beam position measurement system which is auto-triggered by the RF transmitter on passage of the ball. Reflectometry at frequencies in the 4-8 GHz range can cover the gaps between beam position monitors and could therefore be used to localise a ball blocked by an obstacle.